TSMC Updates its Silicon Menu

First 7nm chips, EUV migration described

Rick Merritt, EETimes 9/14/2017 00:01 AM EDT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — TSMC reported progress in 7nm and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and bolstered a planar process that competes with fully depleted silicon-on-insulator at an annual event here. It also gave updates on its work in packaging and platforms for key market segments.

The foundry, celebrating its 30th anniversary, expects to tape out more than ten 7nm chips this year and start volume production with the process next year. The chips include a quad ARM A72 core processor running at up to 4 GHz — possibly Huawei’s Kiron mobile processor — a CCIX development platform, and an unnamed ARM server processor.

TSMC sketched out what it called a relatively simple process of porting design rules and IP to an N7+ process using EUV it could put into production in 2019. The process can deliver 20 greater greater density, 8-10 percent higher speeds or 15-20 percent less power than its current N7 node. Compared to its 16FFC process, N7+ can enable 30 percent higher speed or 50 percent less power on an ARM A72 core, said Cliff Hou, vice president of R&D for design technology at TSMC.